A few changes to last week's team - Braidon Burns is on the wing for South Sydney for the game against Manly, Angus Crichton is on the Souths bench (at no. 16), as are Robert Jennings (18), Anthony Cherrington (19) and George Burgess (20). Jennings, Crichton and Cherrington have also been named for NS. South Sydney plays on Saturday, so there might be some late additions to the NS squad.

I like the graphic on the website that shows the players (see below) but there are six of them in red and green. We need to get photos of them in NS colours - they're playing for the Bears, not the Rabbitohs. And the NS players should be in 2017 jerseys, not 2016. (Sorry, if this comes across as being negative, it's not meant to be.)

I haven't heard if the game is going to be covered by one of the radio stations. The NSWRL website is silent about this.

STILL THE BIGGEST GRUDGE MATCH IN LEAGUE – NORTH SYDNEY INTRUST SUPER TEAM FOR ROUND TWO V SEA EAGLES
by Steve Little

March 7, 2017

A win in the first round is great, however a win against Manly even better.

For the 2017 Intrust Super Premiership season, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles have forged a partnership with the Blacktown Workers Club that sees the feeder club become The Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles.

But Manly can’t get away with it that easily, as always North Sydney will leave nothing in the tank in an effort to beat them.

Luke Kelly and Dave Tyrrell should be added to the teamlist as they've been removed from the Souths teamlist today.

Thanks. I'm not sure I like this new NRL practice of each team naming an eight man bench.

The match preview is on the NSWRL website. The NSWRL isn't letting anyone know which games are getting radio coverage. The match centre says that the Newcastle/Wyong and Wests Tigers/Penrith games are on Fox, but every other game has "BROADCAST: N/A", even though at least two games will be covered:

The NSWRL needs to lift its game. It's pretty disrespectful to the stations that are broadcasting, to the commentators, and to the fans who are (trying) to get behind this competition. It's like the NSWRL doesn't want to let fans know how to follow their teams.

Silvertails win the Fibros war
Manly get their hands on Blacktown's juniors – and the locals are fine with it
By Joe McDonough
Rugby League Week
9 Mar 2017

Unholy Union Blacktown now wear the maroon of Manly. In the '70s that would've caused a riot.

Back In The 1970s Manly used their money and influence to lure players from Sydney's west – a move that saw them dubbed the "Silvertails", a force wholly at odds with the battling "Fibros".

Now the Sea Eagles have done it again, coming out west and taking what they want – only this time it's Blacktown's huge talent pool of juniors.

RLW was on the hill at H.E. Laybutt Field last Sunday for the first game of this new union – the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles against the Newtown Jets – because surely there'd have to be some anger among the locals over this daring raid on western Sydney? The answer is a resounding "no". There were shiny new flags thanks to Manly's maroon replacing the red on Blacktown's colours, and the travelling Newtown faithful ensured there was a very healthy crowd.

First port of call was the canteen to speak with the club's volunteers. Asked about the partnership, the three locals behind the counter scoffed at the suggestion some fans might be furious about the takeover.

The general feeling is: it's good for their kids, so it's fine by them. They told us that Blacktown's juniors had often been overlooked in the past, and a direct pathway up through the grades has been long overdue for the area.

Club president Keith Cochran has seen it all. He took over 11 years ago when Blacktown had just four junior teams to their name.

Now they're represented in the NSW Cup, Ron Massey Cup and Sydney Shield, and boast an abundance of juniors in every age bracket.

Their current position is so strong that construction of a $21 million Centre of Excellence is due to be completed on the Reservoir Road site by April next year.

Keith tells RLW just how tangible the pathway is.

"We still feed to Penrith and the deal is that Penrith gets first crack and Manly gets the second crack. But Penrith can only put so many players on the field and there are a lot of juniors that are falling through the cracks and being lost to football – so this gives our juniors a true pathway through to the NRL," he explains.

"It's great for our kids. Just in our dressing rooms today, the fellas that came back to us [from the NRL], the juniors are walking around going 'Oh jeez, look at this, how good is this?' And I'm saying 'Yeah mate, you can say g'day to them and they'll give you an autograph'."

But does he expect any backlash, maybe from the odd old-timer who doesn't forgive easily?

"[The partnership] was one of the worst-kept secrets in rugby league last year and Tommy Raudonikis, God love him, turned around and started all this Silvertail-Fibros stuff.

"But as I've said before, come and have a look at what the price of a house is in Blacktown. You don't get much change out of $1.1 million, just quietly. So the old days of the Silvertails and the Fibros, they're long gone."

A good win to the Bears, although we fell off at the end to let Blacktown get two late tries. Sounds like we played well for most of the game. NS's seven tries were scored by seven different try scorers.

NS is fourth on the table and is one of five teams with two wins from two games.

Bit of a delay as a Blacktown player is stretchered off following an accidental knee in the back.

4:05PM Play resumes.

4:08PM NS takes advantage of an overlap and Sitiveni Moceidreke scores under the posts, courtesy of a great offload from Tautalatasi Tasi. Levido converts, NS 30-10.

4:11PM A beautiful Luke Kelly kick is ruled to have gone out on the full. Dane Nielsen and one of the commentators think it's a dud call. One commentator says that if he gave his 3-2-1 votes now, Kelly would get the three, says he's been excellent.

4:15PM Blacktown attacking the line and almost score. Commentators say that one and possibly two attackers were taken out by the NS defence.

4:23PM Blacktown kickoff goes out on full. NS makes the most of it, with Ed Murphy scoring in the corner on what must be his first touch of the ball. Levido converts from the touchline, against the wind. NS 40-10.

4:33PM Blacktown butcher a try with a forward pass. NS makes break from scrum; play concludes with a kick that just goes dead, ahead of the outstretched arms of Moceidreke. Blacktown get a 20m restart, and shortly after gets a try. NS 40-16.

Biting Back: The North Sydney Bears responded in perfect fashion after conceding an early try.

The North Sydney Bears have put the newly-formed Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles to the sword in Round 2 of the Intrust Super Premiership NSW, defeating their opponents 40-20 at HE Laybutt Fields.

The Bears, who experienced one of the smallest player turnovers over the off season, performed as a cohesive unit against a Sea Eagles outfit still finding its feet in the competition. Co-captains Eli Levido and Brad Deitz led from the front, while George Burgess was hard to handle and Cameron Murray put forward a typical hard-working performance for North Sydney.

It didn't take long for the home side to build pressure, however, with a penalty followed by an accidental North Sydney play over the sideline gifting Blacktown three successive sets. The Sea Eagles crossed the stripe off the resulting scrum through Viliame Kaveinga, with a simple right-side movement bringing the game's first points. The conversion attempt from Joey Lussick was unsuccessful and Blacktown had a 4-0 lead.

The visitors looked like hitting back when Tom Burgess was held up over the line, but after 10 scoreless minutes the Bears would eventually get on the scoreboard via hooker Deitz. With Levido slotting the conversion from in front, North Sydney were up 6-4.

Almost instantly, the Sea Eagles' woes were compounded when leaders Deitz and Levido combined for a classy four-pointer up the middle. The dummy-half split the Blacktown defence for a 30-metre line-break, offloading to Levido to cross under the posts - a try he converted for a 12-4 lead.

Momentum had well and truly turned at HE Laybutt Fields and next up it was the Bears' big men time to shine; Cameron Murray first broke the Sea Eagles' defence through a strong run before Tom Burgess charged over two plays later for his side's third. Once again converted from in front, North Sydney led 18 points to four.

Eventually the Sea Eagles got another chance to spend time in an attacking position and with a nice pass from Jackson Hastings, they made the most of it; the former Rooster offloaded to bench forward Sarafu Fatiaki, who scored to reduce the deficit to eight.

The ball still looked to be in North Sydney's court and the visitors soon scored another, this time through a dangerous-looking Siosifa Talakai. Levido successfully added the extras, making the half-time score 24-10.

The second stanza didn't start in ideal fashion for the Bears, who sent the kick-off out on the full, but they managed to sustain early pressure from their opponents. In the 47th minute the North Sydney side added to their advantage with a try to Sitiveni Moceidreke, thanks to a timely in-goal offload from Tautalatasi Tasi. With that converted the scoreboard read 30-10 in favour of the Bears.

Cameron Murray was the next to get on the score sheet, with a hard, flat run from close to the try line drawing three defenders - but still resulting in points. From almost in front, Levido missed the conversion in his first major error, so scores remained 34 points to 10.

Things went from bad to worse for the Sea Eagles, kicking the ball out on the full in the resulting restart and conceding in the next set. Five-eighth Pita Godinet attempted an optimistic intercept close to his try line but failed to take it cleanly, giving the Bears a clear overlap and allowing experienced winger Ed Murphy a try in one of his first touches since taking the field. Levido added the extras from out wide for a 40-10 score line.

The Sea Eagles were having no luck and halfback Jackson Hastings appeared to set up Tyler Cassel for a try, only for the pass to be called forward. A break from Tyrell Fuimaono soon had the Bears back on the attack, but they failed to add points from that opportunity. With fatigue setting in late in the game, Godinet made the most of conditions with a 40-metre line-break and try. It left scores at 40-16.

For the third time of the afternoon, the resulting kick-off landed over the sideline and it gave the home side an opportunity to reduce the deficit. Godinet fount Matthew Wright, who found Jonathan Wright in the left corner - while the conversion attempt sailed wide, it gave the Sea Eagles a slightly more respectable 40-20 scoreline at the game's conclusion.